Following his record-setting triumph at ONE 166: Qatar, where he became the first athlete in ONE Championship to become a three-division MMA world champion, Anatoly Malykhin is now preparing himself to be an active title holder and fend off challenges from different contenders as much as he can.
Speaking to MMA Junkie's YouTube channel for an interview, Malykhin revealed that he is willing to bounce around the three weight classes in which he currently reigns and doesn't care who he fights, as long as the promotion puts an opponent in front of him.
The Russian knockout artist said:
"Not really, when it comes to MMA, I'm ready to fight anybody. I'm ready to fight in this crazy rules."
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Malykhin reasserted his mastery over Reinier de Ridder and extended his immaculate record in ONE Championship to six and 14 overall after a third-round TKO finish of 'The Dutch Knight.'
Other fighters who were victimized by the incredible power of 'Sladkiy' were Alexandre Machado, Amir Aliakbari, Kirill Grishenko, and Arjan Bhullar. Anatoly Malykhin also kept his 100 percent finish rate intact.
Anatoly Malykhin names two possible opponents for his return to the heavyweight division
After revealing that he wants to defend all his championships, Anatoly Malykhin has dropped a hint regarding his return to the heavyweight division because he named Oumar Kane and Aliakbari as worthy challengers for his ONE heavyweight world title.
Both contenders are currently on winning streaks and have solid cases for securing a shot with Malykhin.
Although he has incredible power and a striking-heavy style of fighting, the Golden Fight team representative doesn't want to crossover to the Muay Thai and kickboxing realms to potentially collect more world titles, because he doesn't want to compromise and deprive himself of techniques that he can't use in the sport, citing that he will be like a fish out of water.